Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to cost analysis and more particularly to systems, methods and computer program products for determining user satisfaction in relation to the cost of ownership of a vehicle in order to facilitate the user's decision regarding when to buy or sell the vehicle.
Related Art
Consumers are periodically faced with the prospect of making decisions with respect to high-value items such as vehicles, and it is often the case that the consumers are not well equipped to make these decisions. For example, when considering whether to purchase a vehicle, a consumer may be well aware of the list price of the vehicle, but it may be much less clear what the consumer's overall cost of owning the vehicle will be. This overall cost of ownership includes items such as fuel costs, insurance costs, financing costs, repair costs, and so on. Consumers may therefore have to rely on their intuition or “hunches” in making decisions about vehicle ownership.
When a vehicle is initially purchased, the consumer's satisfaction with the vehicle is typically at its highest point, and the equivalent value of this satisfaction is greater than the cost of ownership of the vehicle. After the initial purchase, the consumer's satisfaction with the vehicle gradually drops. This may result from a number of factors, such as typical wear and tear on the vehicle, increased maintenance and repair costs, lack of features that are found in later model vehicles, and so on. At some point, the consumer's satisfaction with the vehicle will drop to a level at which its equivalent value is less than the cost of ownership of the vehicle. At this point, the consumer wishes to buy a new vehicle.
This process is, for most consumers, an intuitive one. The consumer typically does not attempt to quantify the annual cost of ownership of the vehicle, and almost certainly does not attempt to quantify his or her satisfaction with the vehicle. This type of information would, however, be helpful to many consumers when making decisions regarding whether to buy or sell a vehicle, so that they could base their decisions upon more objective information than intuition, “hunches”, or anecdotal information.
It would therefore be desirable to provide tools that enable vehicle owners (or potential owners) to quantify satisfaction and costs of ownership, and view their anticipated satisfaction in relation to the ownership costs in order to facilitate their decisions relating to the purchase or sale of a vehicle.